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Washington State Federation of Teachers records, 1937-2006

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Washington State Federation of Teachers
Title
Washington State Federation of Teachers records
Dates
1937-2006 (inclusive)
Quantity
22.8 cubic feet
Collection Number
2201
Summary
Correspondence, reports, speeches and ephemera related to teachers' union of Washington state
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Creator's literary rights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.

Request at UW

Additional Reference Guides

View inventory/container list for this accession

Languages
English
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Historical Note

The Washington State Federation of Teachers was formed in the mid-1930s when several American Federation of Teachers local union affiliates joined together and formed the Washington Joint Council of Teachers, soon reorganized as the WSFL. The Federation and its affiliates organized K-12 teachers throughout the state, but had the most success in western Washington, with a collective bargaining agreement in Bremerton public schools in the late 1930s and strength in secondary schools elsewhere. Later the union organized successfully among community college faculty. By the 1980s most K-12 teacher organizing had been abandoned in the face of successful collective bargaining by National Education Organization affiliates. Today (2016) the organization represents pre-K through 12 classified staff, and professional staff in community and technical colleges. The organization's name was changed to Washington Federation of Teachers in the 1980s, and to AFT Washington in the 2000s.

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Content Description

Organizational records, including constitutions, minutes of the union's executive board (1945-2002) and councils of the federation; administrative records; correspondence (1949-2002), convention and conference records (1945-2005). Subject files (1943-2006) deal largely with organizing, collective bargaining and political issues but include substantial material related to the activities of local union affiliates. Legal records include case files related to representation and grievance cases. Publications include newsletters of the WSFL and of groups within it and of affiliates. Related to the publication files is a series of records, daily filings (1969-1979), that consists of a chronological file of materials duplicated by the WSFL office for distribution to affiliates, including newsletters and circulars and publications produced for the state federation's affiliated local unions. Records of several affiliated organizations are also included in these records, including records of the Bremerton Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 336 (1935-1965); Lake Washington Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2298 (1970-1972); Seattle Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 200 (1951-1972); and Seattle Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1789 (1970-1973).

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Consult the restrictions governing reproduction and use for each of the accessions listed below.

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Administrative Information

Processing Note

Labor Archives volunteer Ernie Dornfeld merged the original 8 accessions of the collection into accession -001.

Related Materials

The Elmer Miller Papers, Accession No. 1086-001 , contain substantial material related to the WSFT, especially for the period 1935-1966, including correspondence, Executive Board minutes, and convention records. Miller was active in leadership of the WSFT from its beginning and in the predecessor organization, the Washington Joint Council of Teachers.

The AFT Washington Branch website has been regularly captured by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine since 2013. The snapshots can be viewed here: https://wayback.archive-it.org/3988/*/http://wa.aft.org/

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Education--Washington (State)
  • Educational law and legislation--Washington (State)
  • Lobbying--Washington (State)
  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)
  • Teachers' unions--Congresses
  • Teachers' unions--Washington (State)--Archives

Corporate Names

  • American Federation of Teachers
  • Washington State Federation of Teachers--Archives
  • Washington State Federation of Teachers--Employees
  • Washington State Federation of Teachers--Finance
  • Washington State Federation of Teachers--Membership

Geographical Names

  • Washington (State)--Politics and government

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • Brisbois, Alfred K (creator)
    • Graves, H. D (creator)
    • Johnson, Ralph Whitney, 1923- (creator)
    • Miller, Elmer (creator)
    • Paschal, Harold (creator)
    • Rieder, Ross K

    Corporate Names

    • American Federation of Teachers. Local 1789 (Seattle, Wash.) (creator)
    • American Federation of Teachers. Local 200 (Seattle, Wash.) (creator)
    • American Federation of Teachers. Local 2298 (Kirkland, Wash.) (creator)
    • American Federation of Teachers. Local 336 (Bremerton, Wash.) (creator)
    • American Federation of Teachers. Local 772 (Everett, Wash.) (creator)
    • Labor Archives of Washington (University of Washington) (host institution)
    • Washington Education Association (creator)
    • Washington State Federation of Labor (creator)
    • Washington State Federation of Teachers. College and University Council (creator)
    • Washington State Federation of Teachers. Executive Board (creator)
    • Washington State Federation of Teachers. K-12 Council (creator)
    • Washington State Federation of Teachers. President (creator)
    • Washington State Federation of Teachers. Retired Teachers' Federation (creator)


2007 (Last modified: 7/15/2022)

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